Mable: There's a new poll to check out after the chapter if you would like. Enjoy!
Almost Feels Like Home
Chapter Seventy-Four
It took some time but eventually Springtrap's prediction came true. Baby had been sitting at the base of the steps and listening to the storm outside, along with the occasional whisper between Max and Candy Cadet, so she heard when it started to let up. It had taken some time but eventually the wind died down and only the sound of gentle rain could be heard. The window was open for them. Baby wheeled over to Charlie, who had been standing in the doorway watching Foxy direct various games and tapped her on the shoulder.
That was the signal that it was time to leave. Charlie looked around the room to make sure nobody was watching them. To her surprise, Marionette was speaking to Mike and thus didn't even notice Baby coming to get her. The only one who did look like he might've been looking was Ennard, but he looked away quickly. Most likely he just naturally looked over because of Baby's appearance. With nothing else stopping her, she turned and followed out into the front room.
"Either the tornado has stopped or we are in the eye of the storm. This may be our only chance either way," Baby pointed out. She glanced to the door and back. "You should get Mike, but don't tell him or the others that the storm stopped. That will ruin everything."
"It's going to be even easier than that… Because I'm going to be driving," Charlie said. She brought the keys out of her pocket and twirled them on her finger. Baby's eyes twitched almost like one would blink. "Mike's just not up to it and I've driven before. Besides, the fewer of us the better."
"You don't have to come," the clown offered. She almost sounded a little uneasy at the idea, which was very unlike her. "You wouldn't want to go down there. It's an unpleasant and cold place."
"Its been mentioned so many times that I think maybe it's time I saw it for myself. And who knows, you two might need an extra set of hands down there." Charlie got a knowing look with a hint of a smirk. "Just in case it goes south someone has to be there to pull you off of him."
"Charlie, what do you take me for?" Baby asked simply. Charlie quirked a non-existent brow. "If I had my hands on him, you wouldn't be able to pull me off," the clown simply finished before turning and wheeling to the door to the hallway. She opened it up and gestured inside. "Can you go get him?... Unless he has changed his mind about this so-called proof."
"Something tells me he hasn't," Charlie thought. "Sure." She went into the hallway and headed back to the small room that Springtrap had secluded himself in. He hadn't sat back down since they left earlier. Now he stood idly by the desk, still fumbling with the Handunit, and looking to the door when he heard it open. "Baby said the storm died down. I'm going to be driving."
"None of the others know?" Springtrap asked.
"I don't think so. Maybe Max or Balloon Boy heard, but they're not the type to tell on us. I think we'll be alright." She wondered momentarily if it was worth mentioning Marionette's possible knowledge but decided against it when she noticed how fidgety Springtrap was looking. His finger tapped over the Handunit in a frenzy as he went to shut it off. "…Michael, you don't have to do this. I know what I said earlier, but you don't need to risk your life to prove who you are."
"Yes, I do. I can't have him telling anyone else that he is me, even if right now only Baby believes him. You will understand once you see what is down there. Once I can show you what they did," the rabbit insisted. He then gestured for her to go out the door and let her lead the way. If anything, Springtrap and Baby's comments on Afton Robotics made her more wary but much more curious.
When Charlie and Springtrap returned to the front room, they found Baby already at the top of the stairwell and climbing to her feet. Charlie realized quickly that the clown had sent her in alone so that she could climb the stairs herself. Which, from how she had to climb up from her knees, looked like she had to crawl up them. She followed quickly, Springtrap behind her and looking back to make sure nobody was watching. The only one was Max who stared with dead silence, the Candy Cadet still and lifeless at his side.
It was still raining when they got into the van. Baby had opened the back and scooted in quickly as to not look helpless, leaning back on a bundled of tarps in the back. Springtrap climbed in after her and closed the doors, then moved to crouch behind the front seats, so that he could direct Charlie in the passenger seat. The van started without much trouble but moved like it was dogged down. Charlie couldn't tell if it was their combined weight or if it had received some sort of weather damage.
Once again, Springtrap's prediction had come true. While there were no tornados in sight, the roads were barren. The Security Puppet kept her hood pulled up over her head but didn't really need to do so. Some of the damage she spotted during the drive was disturbing; broken trees, knocked down power lines, missing mailboxes and trash strewn from knocked over garbage cans. She purposefully took the route past Foxy's Pirate's Cove and was relieved to see that the building was spared.
"If luck is on our side then we may get back before the looters draw the police onto the street," Springtrap offered. Though this came out much more pessimistic in tone than optimistic. He still expected an answer and looked to Charlie, noticing how she kept looking around and readjusting her grip. "Don't be nervous. We are doing much better than I expected."
"No, I know. This is going much better than the last time I drove. I guess I get a little more uneasy when it's raining. It was raining when I had my accident." Technically the act of driving was probably the more nerve-wracking issue, but rain and cars did illicit an instinctual tenseness.
"I can relate." Springtrap looked back out at the road in front of them. "…It was raining when I became trapped in this suit," he admitted. When she looked to him, he nodded ahead at an upcoming turn. "Right up here."
"Mine happened at a birthday party. It wasn't raining but there was confetti. It was nearly the same thing," Baby chimed in from the back. She was beginning to feel left out again. From what she saw, neither of them reacted to her comment, and she scratched at the floor of the van in irritation. She didn't know if she was thankful or not when they pulled up to their destination.
Seeing that the front doors were chained closed, Springtrap had a different plan. "Drive around to the back. There's another way inside."
Charlie nodded and did so. It helped that there weren't any roads behind the building. No risk of cars driving by and seeing them. She parked the van beside the back door, but they could both see that this time his prediction was wrong. Springtrap swore under his breath as he climbed out and approached the door. The chain was smaller and weaker than the one on the front door at least, so that meant they would probably still be able to break in easily.
The rabbit lifted the padlock in his hand and looked it over. "Do we have bolt cutters?"
"We don't need them," Baby affirmed as she climbed out of the back and skated around, leaving Charlie to shut the doors and follow. The clown intruded past Springtrap with a swift, "Move," and wedged her claw between the door and the chain. She then tightened her grip and yanked sharply, shearing the chain like it was mere rope.
"Well, I'm impressed," Charlie complimented.
Baby gave a curt, almost smug shrug. "You should see what I can do to wires."
"Depending on how well they locked this place up, I'd say we have a better chance of running across more chains," the Security Puppet reminded. She readjusted her jacket as Springtrap stepped into the darkness and stepped in behind him. "It doesn't look like much from the outside."
"Afton Robotics stands as a representation of its creator. On the outside it looks like an unremarkable structure in the community, and it is not until you venture deeper inside that you see the evil kept hidden under layers of filth. Both would deserve nothing better than complete demolition, instead simply being forgotten by time. Their deeds and legacies left in ash," Springtrap explained as he stepped in. He looked around the hallway and easily saw through the darkness. "This is why we need to get to a lower floor. Which means…" He reached out and flicked a light switch to no response. "We will need to get the power on."
Springtrap charged into the darkness dead set on finding a breaker room with Charlie in pursuit. The building was cold, sterile, with a strange smell that was both clean and stagnant. Like someone had cleaned everything thoroughly and then closed the entire building right afterwards. Even with the lights on, she couldn't imagine working in a place like this.
"How long did you work here?" she asked the rabbit.
"Only a week. It was one of the worst weeks of my life. By day two alone I was under attack by numerous aggressive animatronics."
Asking why he stayed was pointless. There was a more important question Charlie could think of, especially considering what she knew of Michael's background- that he had been at odds with his father and separated from the family. "Why did you come here?"
"I was looking for someone," Springtrap admitted. He stopped to check an old map on the wall before continuing towards a nearby room. Only stopping short when Charlie spoke up.
"You came for Baby," Charlie said. The rabbit paused in his tracks. "You came down to find your sister, right?" This was met with a long pause. One that confused her. That made the most sense; that was what Marionette and Mike believed. He had come to ARI to find his lost younger sister.
"No," Springtrap admitted. His voice was quiet and crestfallen. "…I came looking for someone else."
All at once, the conversation with him from earlier came back and everything clicked into place for Charlie. All of it came full circle but circled around one empty spot; the details of this unknown person.
Springtrap continued ahead again and let himself into the nearby breaker room. It wasn't like the ones on the lower level, being more just a glorified fuse box in a closet than anything that would require a Handunit. In fact, it was awfully rustic in comparison to the high-tech machinery on the lower floors. All he had to do was throw a couple of switches to turn on the power to the elevator shaft. He then turned around to face Charlie before looking past her. "Where's Baby?"
"What?" Charlie looked back as well. Only now did she realize that Baby was nowhere to be found. "I thought she was right behind me."
"The elevator's back that way. We'll look on the way there." Honestly, Springtrap hoped this was a sign that Baby would get cold feet and wait up here as a lookout. He really didn't want to relive the worst moments of his life and having her there would only dredge them back up. To his dismay, they found Baby right before they arrived at the elevator as she skated up from the hall they had entered through.
"Where happened to you? I thought you were with us," Charlie asked her. Springtrap listened as he pressed the elevator button. There was a low beep from deep in the facility followed by the rumbling of the lift.
"Oh. No. I wasn't. I wouldn't step foot in here until I knew there wasn't an alarm or a night guard. He was the canary in the mineshaft," Baby explained as she nodded at Springtrap's back. "Or the rabbit in a snare. You should have waited out there with me."
"There are alarms on this floor. That's why I didn't reset power to the entire building, if I even could have," Springtrap answered. "I'm not foolish enough to set off anything of the sort."
"My mistake. I just assumed when you charged in blindly that you weren't being careful," Baby said with a light hiss. Charlie wiped her mask tiredly at the two's return to bickering and would've broke them up if not for the elevator opening and doing it for her. The three stepped inside and Springtrap tapped into the keypad beside the door. The heavy doors shut, and the elevator began to descend.
Just the sterile elevator alone was starting to give Charlie a glimpse of what the others had told her. There was a foreboding weightiness in the slow descend into the facility. The chill only seemed to grow, and she zipped up her jacket the rest of the way and pushed her hood back.
"Welcome to the first-." The silence was interrupted by the Handunit's automated voice as Springtrap activated it. "Please enter your-." He cut it off and quickly tapped something in on the keypad. "Welcome, Mike."
The elevator returned to an uncomfortable silence. Charlie looked between the other animatronics and could tell from their body language alone that they were both on edge. This place just had that effect on them. At least it wasn't just her. She nearly jumped when the elevator doors opened with a loud clanked and stared out into semi-darkness. The light from the elevator showed down upon a vent opening surrounded by fallen caution tape. Springtrap silently stepped forward and climbed into the shaft.
Charlie almost questioned it but decided not to. If something was amiss then Baby would've said something, so the Security Puppet instead knelt and stared into the darkness. Springtrap was already some ways ahead when she started to crawl through after him. She could hear Baby banging around louder as she crawled through behind her. The vent was both cold and stuffy, but not claustrophobic. If anything, Charlie felt safer in the tight space than out in the open.
Suddenly a voice echoed through the vent, "Please ignore any spills or stains left in the vent. Our vent repair employee has yet to return from their vacation and is considered tardy or fired." It was the Handunit, which sounded like it was going to continue when Springtrap muted it.
"Stains?" Charlie asked. "I don't like the implications there."
"They found a body in this vent once," Springtrap explained. Which was just as bad as Charlie had imagined. "One of the unfortunate technicians before I came to work here."
"What happened to them?" she hesitantly asked. "Do I even want to know?"
"I couldn't say…" Springtrap's neutral voice dropped to coldness and accusation as he added. "You should ask Baby."
"I hate you," Baby answered from the back. Charlie decided not to ask- she really didn't want to know- and Springtrap climbed out of the end of the vent and into the Primary Control Module. As expected, the power was off in the room, and he waited for Charlie to climb out.
"We'll need to get to the Breaker Room through there," he explained as he pointed out the left window. "Once I get the power on, we can make our way to the Private Room through the Funtime Auditorium. It's the closest office I know that had monitors in it. You can wait here for me to turn on the power, but I don't recommend us splitting up. We don't know what's still down here."
Charlie nodded in agreement and looked around the room, then offered a hand to Baby who was still climbing out of the vent. Baby almost took it but noticed Springtrap watching and declined it with a hand wave, standing on her own. The Security Puppet returned to looking around the room, noticing an old poster and an unsettling Baby-faced clock. She then noticed the two control panels that faced the windows with two large buttons on each. They were darkened out, but one button had a sun symbol and the other a lightning bolt, and both panels were identical.
"What were these for, to control the lights?" Charlie asked as she looked at the panel. Even with the power off she didn't risk touching.
"The top one was. The bottom is for administering controlled shocks to keep the animatronics passive," Springtrap answered reflexively. He used the light from the Handunit to see inside the next vent.
"Passive. Right…" She hadn't forgotten what that partial shock had felt like that single time. She could imagine that any animatronic would obey if threatened with that.
"I had one too," Baby spoke up. She wheeled up beside Charlie before gesturing her claw towards another open vent. "That one leads to the Circus Gallery's control room. That's where they kept me."
"And you had a panel like this?" Charlie carefully asked.
"I did… But mine got much more use." Baby tightened her claw at the thought. She always had it worse than the others in that regard. Charlie patted her arm sympathetically, but it didn't really help much. What ultimately snapped her out of that daze was Springtrap, who started climbing through to the Ballora Gallery. Baby recovered and looked to Charlie, "You go in after him." The puppet nodded and did so.
The Ballora Gallery was just spacious enough that even with her ability to see in lowlight it was hard to see the stage. It was empty, standing unused and unloved, with a single broken rope dangling ominously above it. She didn't know what it could've held but it didn't look to be the same wiring of puppet strings. Springtrap seemed to hunch down and crossed the room with a paranoid sort of gait, but she couldn't hear or see anything, and Baby skated behind without much concern.
They arrived at the Breaker Room without issue. It was a small room overflowing with wires and set with a breaker box and a panel of red buttons. Springtrap stepped ahead and opened the box as he had before, beginning to reset the fuses. Within moments the power kicked on. Though instead of actual lights, the Breaker Room regained little more than a single, flickering bulb. Springtrap shut the panel again.
"We will need to be quick. I had to turn power on to the entire floor… Which makes us even more apparent," Springtrap explained. He then headed back towards the door with Baby heading through first and him and Charlie following. They stepped out into the Ballora Gallery yet again and got halfway back to the vent, now able to see a dull glow coming through the windows of the control room.
That was when Springtrap stopped in his tracks and stared up at the window of the room. Charlie looked up as well but couldn't see what he had been looking at. "What's wrong? Did you see something?"
"Movement by the window," Springtrap muttered. He stared at the window with a predatory and paranoid gaze, then handed the Handunit back to Charlie without looking away. "Something's in the control room."
"You must be imagining things. There can't be anyone down here. If it was a nightguard then we would see a flashlight," Baby quickly dismissed.
"I know what I saw," Springtrap affirmed and started to hurry ahead. Baby was quick behind him, even when he nearly dove through to the control module. He looked around the control room before hearing something, a shuffling and thumping, the sound of someone crawling through a vent. His head turned abruptly to the opening towards the Circus Control entrance. "Someone's down here with us…"
"You are just being paranoid," Baby argued as she climbed out of the vent. "It could be one of those little dolls left behind. Does it even matter? We need to go through the Funtime Auditorium." She pointed to the other vent opening insistently. "Stop following make-believe and let's go. You were the one saying we needed to be quick."
Springtrap was too focused on what he knew he heard to even consider going on. Especially now that whatever it was would be cornered, and he knew it was something. He knew the different between a figment of his imagination and something scuttling through the vents. He swooped into the vent and began to quickly crawl down towards the Circus Gallery. Baby was hot on his heels, still giving frustrated mutters as she did.
The Circus Control never had good lighting, but he could see the entire room when he stood in it. A cramped, uncomfortable space full of buttons and knobs with unknown uses, and devoid of any animatronics other than him. He was certain he had heard something come in here and it baffled him to see that he was wrong. Baby climbed out behind him with a huff. "See? Nothing. You were being paranoid."
For a second Springtrap thought maybe Baby was right. Maybe this place was just too attached to bad memories, to the point where he was imagining things he may have heard in the past. He turned his head to look back towards her when he caught the faintest hint of the dullest noise. A very subtle scrap of metal. He remembered that noise and his ear twitched as he stared down at the hiding spot underneath the desk. The cover had been pulled over the space. Something was hiding in the crawlspace.
Baby went remarkably silent when Springtrap crouched down in front of cover. Charlie climbed out behind her and looked to the rabbit in confusion. Both watched as he tried to look past the darkness through the holes in the metal without being able to see what was inside. He carefully reached forward and tried to nudge the cover open, only to meet resistance. It was being held closed.
Without warning, Springtrap dug his fingers into the hole in the cover and yanked it out of the way with all his strength. All at once he revealed the source of the noise.
It was Ennard.
"Of course, it's you," Springtrap spat with frustration. He had half a mind to rip the clown out from under the desk and throw him across the floor but resisted enough to just stand and tower over him. "I should have known you would drag yourself down here after us. Crawling around in the darkness and watching us just as you always do, weren't you?"
"Heh, fancy seeing you here! You guys come here often or is this a special occasion? Ha ha!" Ennard mimicked a normal tone well, but it was clear that he hadn't planned on getting caught. The amalgam began to climb out from under the desk, revealing that he had already shed his 'human' costume from the basement. Seeing him there regardless was baffling.
"Ennard, how did you get here?" Charlie asked in surprise.
"Oh, I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop in!" Ennard excused as he picked a clump of cobwebs off his wires. "I'm regretting it already, ha ha!"
"No, seriously. How did you get down here? There's no way you could've gotten through the tunnels that fast on foot… Wait, were you coming out of the elevator?" All at once Charlie pieced it together and her voice dropped from surprise to disbelief. "You were in the van with us, weren't you?"
Instead of Ennard getting a chance to answer, that question sparked a realization in Springtrap who turned back on Baby with a sharp glare. "Waiting to see if the coast was clear- You were letting him in! You brought it with us without telling us," Springtrap spat. He looked back at the amalgam and hissed, "I knew I should've checked under that goddamn tarp."
"He's just as much of this as you are," Baby affirmed with her own glare. She raised her claw threateningly to jab at his chest, getting the rabbit's eyes back on her. "Do you think I trust you enough to come here with you alone? No. As far as we know, he is Michael and you are the imposter. You could have turned on us as soon as your proof fell through."
"Yes, because that makes any amount of sense," Springtrap sarcastically spat. "If I didn't have proof, then why would I bring you down here when there are people expecting you back? Your disappearance would get noticed, unlike mine. I have no one, so perhaps you brought him down here so you two might ambush me. You always did hunt in a pack."
"There's a pack of something here- a pack of lies!" Ennard challenged. "Lemme tell ya something, Willie, if there's so-called evidence down here of whose Michael then I want to see it! Cause the only thing you've got going for you is the voice and you better believe I can do a spot-on impression that blows yours out of the water," he added, pointing to his own chest.
"I swear to God, if you call me that name one more time- just one more time- I will put my arm straight through your chest and rip out whatever broken piece of garbage you're using as a speaker."
"Ha ha! Really? Sure, come try!" Ennard encouraged with a crackle of amusement. He playfully raised his arms only for his fingers to threateningly spark. "Come try."
"Okay, stop. Both of you," Charlie said calmly while getting between them. "We came down here for the truth and you two aren't going to put all of us in danger because you want to fight it out. Especially when the only reason we're down here is to settle this once and for all," she scolded as she looked between them with a sharp glare. "And that's what we're going to do. We can't go on walking on eggshells because you two want to constantly kill each other. We will find out who is Michael and then that's it. That's the end of it."
Springtrap and Ennard were still looking like they were ready to strike at any moment. Charlie gave an out-of-tune ring as she lowered her arms and crossed them over her chest. Then she looked to Springtrap.
"First of all, what Baby said about Ennard being as much a part of this as you are? She's right. Ennard should be here, because he needs to see this evidence too." Springtrap looked away, obviously not happy with this. The Security Puppet then sent a firm look at Baby. "But Baby should have told usthat she was bringing Ennard with us instead of trying to smuggle him in while we weren't watching."
"I didn't have a choice," Baby defended.
"Baby, what if something happened? What if turning on the power caused an electrical failure in the elevator and Ennard was stuck in the shaft with no way for us to get him out? What if there really was a nightguard down here? All you had to do was say something! We wouldn't even be having this fight right now!" Baby was almost surprised at Charlie's outburst as the Security Puppet calmed herself down. Then pointed to the remaining clown. "You're not off the hook either. Does Scott know you're here?"
"Funny you should ask! Ha, you see-!" Ennard paused for a few seconds, unsure how to continue that tirade, and eventually ending with a simple, "No."
"I'm not surprised," Charlie flatly said. "Did you tell anyone else? Does Mari know?"
"…Does Marion know?" Springtrap questioned from behind her. She looked back to see his questioning gaze now on her. Not nearly as aggressive as with Ennard and Baby but suspicious. She returned with an unenthused look and a simple frown.
"If he does, I didn't tell him. I think if he had followed us too then he would have come out as soon as this started," she reminded. The rabbit considered this and then nodded in agreement, and Charlie looked back towards the new clown. "Ennard, we're going to the Private Room to find evidence about Michael's identity. You're welcome to come with as long as we can all agree to stay civil. At least until we get back."
"Scout's honor! Cross my heart!" Ennard promised as he pressed a hand to his chest.
Springtrap was less than enthused with this idea, but he swallowed his disappointment and headed through the vent again. "Let's get this over with."
"Good idea. The sooner out of here the better," Charlie agreed as she followed. She paused to look at Baby. "I'm going to ask you to help me in staying between these two."
"Where else would I go?" Baby mumbled back. She still seemed to be a little sore at the outburst aimed towards her, pouting as she crossed her normal arm across her chest and waited for Charlie to get far enough inside for her to follow. She looked back towards Ennard. "I thought you were going to be quiet."
"Yeah, I tried. It's hard being quiet when you're coming out of a big, clanking elevator," he answered. He gave a playful laugh as she climbed into the vent, then slumped once she was out of the room. This was already going wonderfully well. He was way too out of practice for this.
Things were thankfully silent as they moved out into the Funtime Auditorium. To no surprise, it was very much like the Ballora Gallery, save that it had a few doors and it looked like a portion of the floor had fallen in. The floor around the hole sagging in and it looked like any wrong step would cause the whole thing to collapse. Thankfully, they stayed near the stage and the left wall. Ennard caught sight of Charlie looking up at the Funtime stage and rushed up to her side.
"Can you believe that itty bitty stage was supposed to hold two animatronics? I'm surprised it hasn't fallen in!" the amalgam remarked with a light laugh. His voice echoed across the large, empty room. Springtrap winced, though might've been exaggerating out of disgust.
"It does seem a little small, but I guess not if they rented them out. But there was only the two of them?" Charlie asked, remembering Funtime Chica.
"That's right! First was Funtime Freddy, and don't let that Baby cartoon fool ya, he wasn't anything like that guy. Then there was Funtime Foxy- Who would perform a fantastic show every hour on the hour!" Ennard's Funtime Freddy voice switched to a more boisterous, showman-like one. Probably Funtime Foxy's own. "And also smelled like pepperoni pizza and birthday cake while he did!"
"And occasionally of mothers' perfume," Baby quietly added as she skated past.
"We do NOT talk about that!" Ennard switched back to his typical voice. "Yeesh, it's not easy rolling with the punchlines with buzzkill Baby and sourpuss Springtrap bringing us down."
"I'm going to guess that this place isn't bringing up the best memories… Which isn't much of a guess considering that they pretty much said so while we were coming down here," Charlie partially defended. Ennard's wires twitched and rubbed together with a light squeak, like they had gotten a little wet from the rain.
"It's not exactly a picnic for me either. Heh, I practically lived down here alone for years… At least, I thought it was years. Things get blurry when ya don't get any visual on the sun. It's the florescent lighting."
"Are you two coming?" Baby asked huffily. To punctuate this, Springtrap was behind her trying to get into the Private Room, and after finding it locked, he was forced to ram it open. It didn't take too much to knock through the flimsy electronic lock, not when the door wasn't braced. Baby sent him a lazy look before rolling over to the door.
"Right behind ya!" Ennard chirped. He hurried ahead, leaving Charlie to send one last lingering look at the stage before following. She had a strange feeling that she tried to ignore as she stepped into the room.
Springtrap was already booting up one of the monitors on the desk and stood hunched over it. His fingers fought past their clumsiness with the keys and drew up the program in mind. The other three peered around him and watched as he pulled up the Employee Database on the flickering screen. Soon a bar for a password popped up underneath a request from an Employee ID Number.
"This is it. Every employee had a number that only they knew and could bring up their personal information," Springtrap explained. He straightened and turned around to stare down Ennard who stood behind him. "Michael Afton would know his own number. Any arguments to that?"
"Ah- No! Ha, course he would know!" Ennard agreed almost reluctantly. Springtrap simply stepped out of the way. "…Oh! You want me to put it in! Heh, sure! Just give me a second or two. Its been a pretty long time so I might need to jog my memory." The amalgam mimicked cracking his knuckles, even faking the cracking noise, and walked over to the monitor. He just assumed that it would pop back into his memory.
He stared blankly down at the keypad with no idea what the number could be. Ennard slowly started to think of a number and then tentatively tapped in one-nine-eight-three. That felt like an important number. The monitor let out a discouraging beep and asked for the ID number again.
"Okay, okay. Just a second… Got it!" Ennard chirped. He typed in one-nine-eight-seven a little more confidently. "This one always works!" And received another negative beep. "Okay, uh, obviously not for this."
It was becoming apparent that Ennard was growing desperate. Soon he started to throw in the first numbers that came to mind. One- Nine- Seven- Zero, nothing. Two- Five- One- Four, nothing. One- Two- Three- Four- nothing. One- One- One- One, nothing. Now it was obvious that he was just guessing, especially with how he was twitching as his fingers flew across the keyboard.
"It's just- it's right there! Right on the tip of my tongue!" Ennard desperately excused in near pleading. It was at this, seeing the clown coming undone, that Baby decided she had enough.
"I didn't remember anything of my life for years. I didn't know I had ever been a human, or that I had a name or a family. I still don't remember anything about Michael Afton. How would someone remember a number from years ago?" Baby asked. She turned to Springtrap with a challenging stare. "All you have proven is that his memory is bad. You still didn't prove that you were Michael."
Without a word, still staring down Baby, Springtrap reached out and pulled the keyboard away from Ennard and in front of him. He only looked over for a split second as he typed in three numbers and a letter and then back at her as he pressed the enter key. The ID number was accepted and suddenly a screen of information loaded on the computer. The employee was just listed as 'Mike' and it added in his height, weight, blood type, age, and even noting that he had received a 'permanent suspension'. Which probably was their way of saying he was fired.
Baby seemed surprised by the show but was too stubborn to back down. "Didn't you say a manager would have the codes? You could've stolen the passwords. You could be using that tool of yours," she said as she pointed at the Handunit. The rabbit made a noise akin to a scoff, only irritating the clown more. She didn't get a chance to voice more doubts as Ennard spoke up.
"Hey, look at this!" They did and could see that there was a photo slowly loading on the screen. Ennard's big blue eyes transfixed on it as it slowly revealed itself line by line. "They had a picture with the file!" His excitement was clear as he waited for the human's face to appear for him. Now he would have a face to the name and to the voice, a face he could see when piecing in the blanks, and all at once the last bit loaded in.
The man in the photo looked to be in his twenties with short either curled or tussled brown hair. He had blue eyes, a darker shade than the Mike they were familiar with, and Caucasian skin. Clearly Michael Afton.
Ennard was washed over by a strange combination of emotions. He recognized this man without a doubt and his voice wavered. "That's… Th-That's him… That's him, that's Michael." And then came the realization as his voice took a new tone, one of devastation. "That's… That's not me."
Charlie turned to Ennard in surprise. While he couldn't show exaggerated emotions, she could see how his pupils had shrunk in horror. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"I'm s-sure. Not me. That face, that's n-not me." Ennard started to sound a little more hysterical as he shook his head. "I don't understand-! I- I thought- It made so much sense. I remembered everything-!..." He dropped his head as he leaned on the desk, wire fingers clutching the edge of the table, and the whole room fell into silence. Then, just as quickly, he perked again and was back at the keyboard. "Th-That's fine! That just means I'm one of the other technicians! Ha ha, just mistaken identity! That's all! It doesn't have to be him!"
"My body was the only one you successfully stowed inside. Mine would have been the only one you had a chance of bonding with," Springtrap pointed out.
"But there's- there's got to be something else! There's gotta be someone else!" Ennard began to frantically type in more numbers. "I remember it! I know it, I was human! I know I was!"
"Wearing a suit of skin doesn't make you a human anymore that wearing that defunct Circus Baby mask makes you a clown. Yet you still play the part of a fool," Springtrap spat with venom and anger. This would've been when Baby stepped in if she wasn't still watching the scene. Not sure what to say now that her own brief belief had been disproven, and especially since the rabbit now had common sense backing him. Done with the situation, Springtrap snatched his Handunit off the desk and walked out. "I think we're done here."
"No, wait! There's- There's gotta be something here! I know I'm real!" Ennard continued to argue as he tried password after password, getting rejected every time. Charlie sent a worried look to Baby who had an unreadable look, as though she knew this was going to get worse before it got better. "I know what I saw! I was a technician- just because I'm not- I know what I saw- ONE OF THESE HAS TO WORK!?"
All it took was one last rejection and Ennard ripped the keyboard free and threw it back into the corner. Baby twitched and Charlie stepped back, both expecting the clown to begin throwing monitors too, but instead he collapsed on the desk. He dropped his head into his hands and fell into defeated silence, and the room followed suit. It was uncomfortably quiet, heavy and thick, and yet neither of them felt comfortable enough to break it when the clown's wires were splayed and twitching like they were.
It took a few long seconds before Baby dared to wheel a little closer. Her skate's squeak giving her away before she could even try to silence it.
"I don't understand…" Ennard quietly vented. His voice deepened as it struggled to stay in its mimic and drifted to its broken state. "I thought I remembered. It all looked so real." His voice lowered further as he gave a chilling, "Wh-What if it was aaall fake? All imagine and prr-tend, not a scooped techni-an. JJJust a bro-ken bot."
"Stop that. Stop talking like that," Baby scolded. "Why does it matter that you aren't Michael? You weren't Michael this morning, you were Ennard. Honestly, I prefer Ennard to Michael, and whichever technician you were doesn't matter when you are Ennard." She was quick and determined with all her words. "And I don't care what he says, I know there was more than one."
"I… I just wanted to be your brother. I wanted a real family," Ennard admitted. "I was so sure…"
"There's something I need to tell you, Ennard, and I don't care how much it hurts because you must hear it," Baby insisted. "…Those families on TV aren't really related. They don't even live together, some of them don't even like each other. They just act like a family. If they can act like a family, then we can too." It was a weird way to encourage him and the results weren't immediate, possibly because they were so abrasive. "Try to pull yourself together so we can leave. We shouldn't stay here any longer."
With that, Baby turned back to Charlie and started to usher her to the door. The Security Puppet seemed hesitant to go. "You really want to leave him?"
"He needs time to pull himself together. He needs space," Baby quietly insisted. Maybe she knew better, so Charlie went along with it and headed out. She looked back at Ennard one more time to see that he hadn't moved from his position, then stepped out with Baby to join Springtrap.
Ennard was alone for a few moments before he felt the familiar weight of a hand patting his back. He sulked down further in response and said nothing. Springtrap had been right; he could've been right about so much more. He came down here to find evidence of his humanity and instead Ennard found nothing. There was no picture of him to remind him of who he was.
Charlie and Baby stepped out into the Funtime Auditorium and found Springtrap standing there looking out distantly. The puppet looked to her female companion, "I don't know if we should've left him alone. He didn't look like he was taking this well."
"He will be fine. It's Ennard, he can be overdramatic," Baby quickly dismissed. "It really isn't such a big deal."
"He seems to think so. It sounds like he's back to questioning whether he was human at all. Which we know he was, but that was the same question that caused his… Episode at the warehouse," Charlie pointed out in concern. "I don't want to think about what we'll do if he starts to reject wires down here…"
"He won't. Trust me, he would be doing it by now. Ennard is upset but eventually he will listen to reason… He will just be sad for a few days and make both Scott and I very uncomfortable." Baby gave a frustrated huff and glared at Springtrap's back. "And he didn't help matters. Only one body- I seem to remember two, and I would be the one who remembers everything." She tightened her claw in growing frustration.
"It's not all his fault. He was just trying to prove who he was. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. Every time I borrow that van it ends in a disaster, and this time we still have an actual disaster going on outside."
The Security Puppet started to innocently walk towards the Funtime stage, looking for a brief distraction, when Springtrap suddenly reached his arm back and blocked her. She looked to him in confusion and found him still staring across the auditorium. Only then noticing that he wasn't staring as distantly as she expected.
"Over there," Springtrap directed. His voice was a low murmur. "I can't tell if it's my eyes or if something is moving."
Confused, Charlie looked across the auditorium and looked around for some sign of what he could've seen. She looked at the doors to no avail and saw nothing shifting in the shadows. She was about to say she didn't see anything when her eyes landed on the hole. There was a bundle of moving wires flexing and fidgeting at the edge of the hole. They looked like the ones Baby and Ennard were made from.
"I see it too," Charlie agreed. "It looks like… Wires."
With that confirmation, Springtrap nodded and called over. "We can see you over there. You're not fooling anyone so just go ahead and show yourself."
Springtrap might've immediately regretted this as the bundle of wires did exactly as suggested.
The wires suddenly slid up and over the edge of the ledge, revealing itself bundled together like an arm. A flimsy lump of metal seemed to be a shoddily made hand that dug into the soft gaps between the tiles as it lifted more of its body up. Another arm struck out and reached for them, metal scraping on the floor as it slowly rose into view.
If Ennard was an animatronic made of wires, then this creature was just a mound of wires pretending to be an animatronic. They held its thin body together weakly and wrapped through scavenged plates to barely make a face. Unfortunately, it happened to just be a face Baby recognized, and she knew without doubt what it was that currently leered at them. It had an eye like a stage light that began to illuminate a gaudy orange glow and it hunched forward and stared with a wide grin of sharp teeth. Baby knew it was staring right at her.
She knew who he was. He remembered who she was.
"WELL, WELL, WELL! HEL-L-LO AGA-AIN!"